


Be A Place That I Call Home

by nearestexit



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, kurooken if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:14:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22126963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nearestexit/pseuds/nearestexit
Summary: It’ll be fine. He’s thought of everything.Well, apparently not everything.When Lev pulls him behind the gym under the guise of saying goodbye, Yaku knows in his gut what’s going to go down.And he isn’t proven wrong because the first thing out of Lev’s mouth makes him want to simultaneously punch Lev in the groin and cry.
Relationships: Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke
Comments: 9
Kudos: 225





	Be A Place That I Call Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I'm Shayla and I have no experience in Marine Bio or Bio Chem. 
> 
> This was born from a rowdy discord server deciding to have a YakuLev night.
> 
> Update: guess who’s writing a part two

February chill gives away to March rain and the sidewalks start to heat up. Clothes stick to bodies with the weight of the humidity and every now and then, a breeze sweeps through the streets nestled between high rises that makes Yaku mourn the cold he’d lamented. The end of the winter months also meant the end of another thing he’d lamented for far too long. 

Come late March, he’ll retire from his high school uniforms, take off his jersey, and graduate. He’ll be alongside Kuroo and Kai when they all get their diplomas. They’ll bow to their club for the last time and leave their teammates in the hands of poor Kenma. They’ll walk off school grounds and never find themselves in their home room class rooms anymore. 

And Yaku. 

Well Yaku won’t even be in Japan anymore. Yaku had been coerced into applying for overseas international programs for marine biology and would be taking residence in a university town in Oregon, United States for the next two years. He’ll Skype his mom once he’s gotten the time differences all figured out, probably annoy Kuroo until they inevitably lose touch, and find some friends in his program to do stupid American things with. 

It’ll be fine. He’s thought of everything. 

Well, apparently not  _ everything _ . 

When Lev pulls him behind the gym under the guise of saying goodbye, Yaku knows in his gut what’s going to go down. 

And he isn’t proven wrong because the first thing out of Lev’s mouth makes him want to simultaneously punch Lev in the groin and cry. 

Lev’s nearly two damn meters tall and somehow manages to make himself look half his height with the way he’s folded over himself, refusing to look Yaku in the eyes no matter how fierce the libero’s ( _ former _ ) gaze is. 

“Don’t you  _ dare _ .” Yaku says and it seeps from between clenched teeth and Yaku belatedly realizes his hands are bunched into fists at his sides. Lev looks up at him then, face sullen and nothing Yaku ever wanted to see in Lev, ever. “I’m leaving. My plane leaves  _ tomorrow _ . You can’t– you can’t tell me this now.” Lev’s mouth opens, then closes, shoulders drooping and hands fisting in his pant legs. 

“I just– I needed to tell you before you left and we...never saw each other again.” 

Yaku does hit him this time, right in the gut and Lev yelps, clutches his side and looks down at Yaku indignantly. 

Yaku’s a sight if you’re judging by the way Lev’s eyes widen more than his mixed blood already allows. Yaku can feel himself practically trembling in his stance, angry, furious, hurt. 

“You’re a damn parasite! You think you can just grow under my skin and make me  _ forget _ about you?” He seethes and he’ll die a fiery death before he acknowledges the wetness gathering in the corners of his eyes, just asking for him to drag his sleeve across them. 

“ _ Yaku-san _ ,” Lev breathes and Yaku hates the look on Lev’s face. Like he’s so close to what he wants but knows he can’t reach it. 

“Don’t.” Yaku shakes his head, finds his gaze falling on the asphalt beneath them. “Why– why’d you wait? It’s too late, Lev.” Only then does he allow what’s been hiding deep in his stupid heart to seep to the surface, recounting the days he spent noticing Lev in new lights. 

“It’s not too late.” Lev says and Yaku’s gaze snaps up. Lev’s standing tall again, gaze narrowed like the rare times he’s at the net and the ball’s right at his palm. “We can still–“

“We  _ can’t _ !” Yaku shouts and Lev doesn’t even waver in his stance. And that pisses Yaku off for some reason. “I’m going to be thousands of miles away and you’re gonna be here, making more friends and figuring out new things and it just won’t work, Lev. It won’t.” The words pull his heart down from where it’s settled between his ribs and he feels like he could choke on it. It strikes him then that those words weren’t for Lev, they were for him. Lev’s going to be a second year and he’s going to get better at volleyball and girls are going to notice him and he’ll find a cute short girlfriend who he’ll take ridiculous photos with and post them on social media and Yaku will be in Oregon in a dorm room with someone who’s language he doesn’t even speak well, homesick and alone. But somehow, it hurts less of entertaining the notion that they do start something, they call each other and live out a blissful honeymoon phase miles apart from each other and then those calls will slowly come less frequently and Yaku will be alone  _ and  _ heartbroken in a foreign country. 

“Yaku-san,” Lev says again and Yaku really just wants to tuck tail and  _ run _ but Lev’s got his hands on Yaku’s shoulders, grip firm and unrelenting as he stares down at the former libero. “We can make it work, but only if you’ll let it.”

Yaku’s stunned for a moment, wondering when in the hell did Lev become  _ romantic _ . Enough so to make his dumb heart beat in a different time signature (whatever time signature those stupid love ballads are played in). When did Lev become more than his stupid kouhai with the aggravating inability to establish boundaries or the inability to do anything that wasn’t considered flashy. 

Maybe it was when Lev started looking to Yaku to see if he’d seen his “amazing receiver” (which wasn’t at all amazing but still made his chest hurt all the same). Or maybe it was when he watched Lev go from clumsy giant to slightly less clumsy giant with the potential for actual mastery of the sport. Maybe it was when they’d walk home together and Lev would talk a mile a minute about his future in volleyball and how great he’s going to be all thanks to Yaku. 

“If you don’t think it’ll work, I’ll wait for you.” That knocks any and all oxygen molecules from his lungs like he’s received a serve with his chest and his eyes grow wide as he takes in the grin that’s spread across his stupid kouhai’s face. “I’ll call you everyday. I’ll write you. We can send each other pictures and I can send you videos of me doing really cool things and you can show me whales and your campus and–“

“ _ Lev _ -“

“Just don’t say no yet. Please.” The pleading laden in the words finally get Yaku to drag his sleeve across his wet eyes, eyebrows furrowed and gaze pointed. 

“You better call me, you giant sack of shi–“ Yaku really does get the wind knocked out of him that time because Lev’s crashing forward, wrapping long arms around the former libero’s body and holding him  _ tight _ . 

And Yaku swallows his pride and hugs back, fingers fisting in the material of Lev’s uniform shirt, face pressed into his chest. 

“I’ll call you everyday. Three times a day. When I wake up, when I’m eating lunch, and when I get home and I’ll send you cards and stuff and you can send me pictures of you in your field ge-“

“You’re pushing it.”

“Okay.”

They don’t do much else aside from hold each other behind that gym. 

Even after they part, they’re still holding onto the promise made between the two of them. 

One that Lev’s assured he doesn’t plan on breaking until the day he dies. 

  
  
  


**_Two Years Later_ **

  
  


Yaku was more than ready to go home but saying goodbye to America was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do. He made a lot more friends than he expected. His roommate turned out to be another international student from Korea who introduced him to some people in their major. His first year was filled with confusion, hikes in the middle of nowhere, kayaks on quiet lakes, drunken mistakes, and Lev. Lev who called him every night until Yaku insisted that they only called each other once a week. The time only gave Lev more material to spew as Yaku nursed hangovers and studied textbooks in foreign languages. 

One of the most memorable calls had been when Yaku fell asleep on one of thee many Skype calls and awoke to Lev’s camera still on with a notepad propped up to face the screen that said “ _ Morning Yaku-san! Hope you have a good day! I love you! P.S you have a cute sleeping face _ ;)”. Yaku is ashamed to admit that he burned bright red and buried his face into his pillow to let out a scream that startled his roommate awake. 

But the calls are over. He’s done with Oregon. He’s going back to Tokyo to finish his two years and intern in a lab ran by one of his professor’s close friends. 

He’s going back to Tokyo and he’s going to be see Lev in person for the first time since the giant idiot confessed to him behind the gym of his old high school. 

Luckily, he doesn’t have to come face to face with him just yet seeing as Lev couldn’t escape prior arrangements and Yaku arranged for Kuroo to pick him up instead. Amazingly, they kept in touch as well and Kuroo kept him up to date on the lives of himself and Kenma’s alike. Kuroo, much like himself, is getting ready to intern in a lab but for  _ BioChem _ . And Kenma’s a damn business mogul that he’s seen in you YouTube video recommendations one too many times. Everything was going well and it was going to keep going well. 

Yaku spends at least thirty minutes at baggage claim, sending Kuroo a series of annoyed texts before his bag finally comes rolling across the conveyor belt and TSA agent checks his passport and welcomes him home with a friendly smile.

He’s juggling a cross body bag and two rolling suitcases when he hears a way too loud “Yaku-san!” ricochet off the concrete walls and his heart beats on ten four time. 

Lev’s got his arms in the air, an enormous bouquet of roses hanging from one of his hands and he’s stupidly  _ taller _ . But the grin on his face makes Yaku swallow whatever ugly emotion was threatening to bubble up in his throat and drop his damn bags right at the moment Lev crashes into him. 

Lev’s clutching him like a lifeline, pulling him flush against his body and Yaku can felt his heartbeat where it pounds against his cheek. Suddenly, he feels like crying. Two years spent miles away from this damn parasite who’s doubled in size under his skin and found his way into his bloodstream has ended and he’s home and free to love Lev however he wants. 

“And I said I wasn’t going to cry.” Kuroo’s voice snaps any chance there was of reviving the moment in half after he speaks and Yaku glares at heart from where he’s still tucked seamlessly into Lev’s chest. 

“Yaku-san,” Lev breathes and Yaku gets a good look at the way he’s changed as they pull apart. Soft cheeks have given away to something more angular and there’s a new sharpness to his smile that makes heat flare in his abdomen. “Welcome home.”

  
  
  
  


It’s needless to say that after tearful reunions with his family and long banters with Kuroo that as soon as Yaku gets Lev behind closed doors, they collide like a like atoms forming a new molecule– holding each other tight as the summer humidity sticks to their skin. 

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I have minuscule knowledge of science but I know Yaku and Lev have chemistry


End file.
